A Thought or Two About Wax? What?

And we’re good at being thankfully excited when a child responds to the gospel.

But what does all this mean to a child (or an adult)?

2 Corinthians 1:22 reads: and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

Once we trust Christ as our Savior, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. That means He is within us, convicting us, comforting us, transforming us … and is a guarantee of our glorious future with Christ.

But what does Paul mean when he says we are sealed with the Holy Spirit?

The seal – A mark a person would put on a document or possession to prove ownership and credibility. Once that seal was set, no one but the owner could break it or negate it. To set the seal, the identifying “signature” (often engraved in a ring) was pressed into wax or clay (and sometimes other soft materials). The “signature” could be an initial, but often was a picture since many people in ancient times couldn’t write.

(Other verses about the Holy Spirit being our seal include Ephesians 1:13; 4:30. These verses explain that we can grieve the Holy Spirit with our disobedience – a concept that we should also teach our kids and which we’ll talk about in another post.)

Sometimes a seal would be a mark on a paper that can not be removed (like a notary seal). Other times it would be the closure of a document.

To illustrate the concept of being sealed – you can do the following activity with your child. You will need an envelope, a candle and a seal. (If you’d like, you could have the child write a note to put inside the envelope.)

After closing the envelope, light the candle and drip some wax on the point of closure. If your children are small, you will need to help them. Older children may be able to do this by themselves. In a class situation, you may want to divide into small groups and have an adult help in each group.

If you have an actual seal or signet ring, use that to make an impression in the wax. If you don’t have an object that can be used as a seal, have your child create a seal in the wax with a toothpick. Explain to your child that just as someone cannot open the envelope without breaking the seal, so no one can break our relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Continue the conversation in the coming days by talking about the Holy Spirit helping us make good choices in behavior and comforting us when a difficult situation occurs in our life.